


Leave the Light on

by Sourlander



Series: Unknown Limits [9]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Stormpilot, moe - Freeform, poefinn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-03
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-08-28 20:37:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8462125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sourlander/pseuds/Sourlander
Summary: Morap sighed and once again the scent of wine hit Poe straight in the face. “But I want to get home. We can cuddle there just as well.”            Poe’s smile widened at the mention of the word cuddle and he felt like giggling. “Fine,” he sighed. “Just, how are we going to do this?”            Morap’s eyes were still sparkling as he shrugged and Poe could hear the soft noise, which signalled that the coat was already taking all the strain it could. “Somehow,” Morap suggested.            “Maybe if we walked backwards the wind wouldn’t hit us right in the face.”            “Maybe if I just threw you over my shoulder we’d get there a lot faster.”            “Maybe if I dropped to the ground, you’d give me the whole jacket to keep me warm and you’d have to carry me back home?”            “Maybe if you stopped acting like the drunk fool you are we could actually get a move on?”            “Maybe if you kissed me I’d be more willing to comply?”____Poe's relationship isn't always easy.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AuroraLynne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuroraLynne/gifts).



> This short fic is set in the Unknown Limits Universe. It was inspired by the song "Ich lass für dich das Licht an" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mthEYzX1BQI) by the German band Revolverheld. I hope you like it!
> 
> It's a gift for my friend @auroralynne who made me fall in love with Morap all over again!
> 
> Thanks to Flausengut for being my beta!!

#  **Leave the Light on**

 

Morap had had that coat forever. Whenever it got even a bit colder outside, he dug it out from somewhere in their shared closet. Poe still couldn’t quite believe that Morap, who didn’t pay too much attention to his outward appearance, but at least wore clothes that fit him, would have a coat this bulky. As he put it on now, leaving the cantina, their fellow pilots still drinking in the corner where they had left them, Poe couldn’t help but smirk.

            “What?” Morap’s lips were tinted bluish from the wine they had been drinking and Poe was fairly sure that he himself didn’t look much better.

            “Nothing,” Poe said quietly and shrugged on his new leather jacket. “Just admiring your coat, is all.”

            Morap scoffed. “You’d rather freeze to death than wear something sensible, wouldn’t you?”

            “It’s not that cold,” Poe argued. They were still standing in the relative warmth the cantina provided, but he knew that he _would_ be cold once they got outside. Fortunately, they didn’t have to walk very far and Poe wouldn’t even get to complain.

            “If you say so, Dameron.” Morap raised his eyebrows and kissed Poe quickly on the cheek before stepping out into the night. Poe turned to look at the other pilots once more, before following his partner.

            The icy wind that hit him directly in the face made him catch his breath and at the sound Morap turned around to look at him, but he didn’t offer one single comment and Poe was grateful for it. It was as if the cold had suddenly blown away the comfortable sense of drunken drowsiness he had felt inside the cantina. Shrugging, he closed his leather jacket, which had served him well on the way to the cantina but was in no way sufficient to keep him warm in this weather. At least it wasn’t raining, but he could practically smell the snow on the air already. Shivering, he stepped next to Morap and managed a smile. “Let’s go,” he said, keeping his teeth tightly shut, so they wouldn’t start chattering, but he knew that he wouldn’t be able to stop them from doing so for a long time.

            The main base of the Republic’s navy was in the far northern hemisphere of Corellia for reasons no one could really make out, but most of the time Poe didn’t really mind, but of course it would have been nice of the officials who had picked this place, to consider that a more temperate climate would have done just as well.

            “You’re freezing.” There was no mockery in Morap’s voice, but Poe shook his head.

            “I’m fine. Can we please just go now?” He made to start walking in the direction of the apartment they had moved into about a year after this whole thing between them had started. “What?”

            Morap’s shoulder length hair fell into his face as he shook his head. “You’re an idiot, you know that, right?” Without waiting for an answer, Morap opened the buttons of his coat again.

            “Yes, I am freezing, but I don’t want your coat! Man, you’re driving me crazy!”

            Laughing. Morap shrugged one of his arms out of its sleeve. “Let’s share, babe, it’ll be warmer for the both of us.”

            Before Poe could protest, Morap had put his arm around Poe’s torso and pulled him close so their bodies were pressed tightly against each other. Poe could smell the wine on Morap’s breath and his eyes closed as Morap’s lips brushed gently against his. He could feel Morap stumbling against him, as he fumbled with the coat to put it over Poe’s shoulder as well and Poe let out a short laugh. “This is not going to work,” he murmured breathlessly, and trailing his lips along Morap’s chin.

            “Shush,” Morap said.

            Poe could already feel Morap’s body heat as the coat shielded him from the icy wind at the same time and he didn’t complain as Morap signalled him to put his arm through the sleeve. The coat was way too tight on the both of them, and Poe felt like if he moved to far in any direction, he’d rip it straight in half. _So don’t move_ , a voice in his head whispered and he smiled wildly.

            “Better?” Morap asked, looking down at Poe with that bright smile of his.

            “Way better. So good in fact that I’m not sure I want to move after all.”

            Morap sighed and once again the scent of wine hit Poe straight in the face. “But I want to get home. We can cuddle there just as well.”

            Poe’s smile widened at the mention of the word _cuddle_ and he felt like giggling. “Fine,” he sighed. “Just, how are we going to do this?”

            Morap’s eyes were still sparkling as he shrugged and Poe could hear the soft noise, which signalled that the coat was already taking all the strain it could. “Somehow,” Morap suggested.

            “Maybe if we walked backwards the wind wouldn’t hit us right in the face.”

            “Maybe if I just threw you over my shoulder we’d get there a lot faster.”

            “Maybe if I dropped to the ground, you’d give me the whole jacket to keep me warm and you’d have to carry me back home?”

            “Maybe if you stopped acting like the drunk fool you are we could actually get a move on?”

            “Maybe if you kissed me I’d be more willing to comply?”

            “Ha!” Morap was barely holding back the laughter. Poe could see his lips twitching, but he didn’t bend over to kiss him and to be honest he hadn’t expected Morap to. “You’ll get your kiss when we get home. Not a second sooner.”

            “Fine…” Poe staged a sigh, went on his tiptoes to make himself the two inches taller which he needed to comfortably kiss Morap on the mouth. The other didn’t pull away, but started walking, Poe pressed tightly against him in the shared warmth of Morap’s coat.

            Poe didn’t even mind stumbling through the empty streets with Morap so close to him, even though, or maybe because they must look like total idiots, both of them wrapped in the same coat, stopping every now and then to push against a building, lips touching and hands tied by the sleeves which were keeping them warm. By the time they reached the apartment building, Poe’s head was spinning and he was so out of breath that he was grateful for the fact that the flat was situated on the first floor.

            Only reluctantly did he let go of Morap and watched as the other opened the door and let them both into the building. Morap was grinning, when they reached the door to the apartment and shook his head. “You can give me my coat back now, you know?”

            Poe raised the hand which was still stuck in the sleeve. “Don’t you want to be stuck with me anymore?” he gave back with a cheeky grin of his own.

            “Not necessarily in the same clothes for the rest of the night, thank you.”

            Laughing, Poe turned around inside the apartment and freed his arm from the sleeve. “Alright,” he said, “but only as long as it’s just the clothes that are bothering you.” The light hadn’t come on yet and before he knew it he bumped into something solid which shouldn’t have been sitting in the middle of the corridor. “What the-“

            With a loud, dissatisfied beep, Morap’s droid came to life and Poe jumped to the side as the round BB-unit rushed towards Morap, complaining loudly. “Hush!” Morap said, closing the door behind him and turning on the light. “Nothing’s wrong! You can power down again.”

            The droid’s dome shaped head whirled around, training its sensors first on Poe and then on Morap. Poe would never understand why Morap took that astromech with him to the apartment. He himself always left his with the other droids back on base, but Morap was weirdly attached to the machine. A couple of long, angry beeping sounds later and an angry look from Morap, the droid rolled back into the corner where it was supposed to wait anyway and powered down.

            “Why do you keep it here again? I forgot” Poe asked, shrugging out of his own leather jacket and throwing it over the chair which served as their coat rack.

            “It’s my home…” Morap murmured, avoiding Poe’s gaze and adding his coat to the pile and brushing the red hair out of his face. He had started to let it grow out a couple of months back and Poe had to admit that he really liked it like this, but what he didn’t like was when Morap started steering around questions he didn’t want to answer.

            “I know that. It’s just…” Poe sighed. “Never mind, I’m too tired for this.” And he was. Just getting home, bumping into that droid of Morap’s and almost getting into a fight with his partner had done that for him.

            Morap nodded and, with a quick kiss on Poe’s cheek, he headed off into the living room. Poe just kept standing in the entrance, looking at the orange and white droid, with its scratched exterior. Morap had owned it ever since Poe had known him and Morap seemed to be weirdly attached to it. How the man could be _so_ attached to a simple machine, however, Poe couldn’t tell and as far as Poe knew, the droid was snarky, bad tempered and sometimes even downright nasty, at least towards him. Why Morap liked to treat the droid as a pet, or even a friend, was unfathomable.

            As soft, melancholic music, accompanied by melodic and high pitched voices started issuing from the room next door, Poe only barely managed to hold back a sigh. He didn’t particularly care for Morap’s taste in music either, but it was not like he hated it. Over the years he had gotten used to it. Without sparing another look at the astromech, Poe followed Morap into the living room and poured his partner and himself another glass of wine. Their bedroom door was wide open, but he wouldn’t go in there without first sitting down with Morap for a while. That conversation before had almost felt like an argument and that was something Poe didn’t want hanging in the air until the next day.

            “You don’t have to wait up with me,” Morap said quietly, as Poe approached the couch on which Morap was sitting facing the window.

            “I know I don’t,” Poe said quietly. “But I want to.” He offered one of the glasses to Morap, who took it in his left and held out his right arm for Poe. Smiling slightly and feeling the familiar warmth spread through his body, Poe sat down next to Morap, leaning against the other’s side and closing his eyes immediately. Morap’s arm pulled Poe closer and Poe felt Morap’s big hand rest on his chest. The music washed gently over him and Poe had to admit once again that it managed to calm him down quicker than anything else might have done. The glass of wine in his hand was completely forgotten, until that high pitched voice started singing again in a language Poe couldn’t understand and his eyes flicked open as the hairs on his back stood on end.

            Morap took a sip of wine and his thumb stroked Poe’s cheek. “You hate this, don’t you?”

            Poe forced a smile. “I don’t so much hate as dislike it when she starts singing. How can you stand it?”

            A kiss on the lips compensated for his anguish and Morap’s hand took the wine from him, “Thank you for listening to it anyway,” Morap whispered against his mouth.

            “Not much I can do, is there?” Without giving a single thought to the glasses Morap was holding, Poe put his arms around Morap’s neck and felt his muscles relax as the woman screeching at them from the speakers shut up and the music picked up again.

            “Nope… nothing at all. Hang on a second…” Gently disentangling himself from Poe’s embrace, Morap set the glasses on the table and reached for the small, round remote. With a twirl of his thumb on the shiny white surface, the music was turned off and Poe smiled in relief.

            “You could have left in on,” he said and couldn’t stifle the yawn that was working its way up his throat and bringing tears to his eyes.

            “And rob you of the opportunity to sleep? No, thanks. I prefer my pilot well rested.”

 Morap’s kiss tasted like the wine he they had both had and Poe couldn’t help but sigh, pull him even closer and lean back, so Morap way lying in top of him.

Chuckling, Morap pulled away. “No way, Commander,” he said and Poe, who had trouble even opening his eyes again could hear the grin on his voice. “We’re not gonna do this. I don’t want you falling asleep on me again.”

Poe smiled vaguely and blinking up at him. “That only happened once! Are you going to keep teasing me about that for the rest of our lives?” The words were out before he even realized what he had said. Morap’s face was only an inch from his and he could practically see Morap coming to the same conclusion as Poe. The rest of their lives. That’s what this was. This, what they were doing here, what they had been doing here for the last couple of years was leading to “forever”. It was as if it had been like this from the day they had decided to make their relationship public. At first it had been more of a secret between the two of them, given that they were both in the Republic’s navy and in the same squadron on top of that and that could only lead to complications, but avoiding each other had been hard and staying apart even more so. From the moment they had walked into the hangar side by side and Poe had kissed Morap on the cheek before climbing into his X-Wing they had been destined for this. For this “forever”.

“I think so…” Morap said quietly, his face as serious as Poe had barely ever seen it. “If you let me…”

Heaving a theatrical sigh, Poe nodded. “Fine… so let’s go to bed, before you start all over again, or you turn on that infernal music, which I can’t even bring myself to ask you to turn down.” He pushed Morap away from him and as he got up, he had to hold on to Morap’s shoulder. There had been a time when he had been able to take more than he had in the last couple of hours, but, he thought, that was the price one had to pay for growing older. Morap was up and had his arm around Poe’s waist, before Poe could even begin to pull himself upright on his own. Leaning against his partner’s chest and mulling over with as lovesick a smile as he could muster, he let himself be guided through the bedroom door and thrown onto the bed.

Morap hadn’t bothered to turn on the light and Poe didn’t resist, as he felt Morap pulling off his shoes and allowed Morap to turn him over as well.

“Aren’t I going to brush my teeth tonight?” he asked drowsily. Everything seemed to be spinning around him and he felt another yawn overwhelming him and cutting off his next remark as he felt Morap’s fingers on his fly. Before he knew it, Morap had pulled off Poe’s trousers and let them fall to the ground. Morap’s body was silhouetted by the light coming from the living room, as he quickly got rid of his own clothes.

“Nice foreplay…”, Poe muttered.

“Shut up.”

“Why?”

“You make me sound like an amateur.”

“Well…” The L-sound felt heavy on his tongue and Poe had forgotten what he was going to say, before Morap had even raised his head to look at him.

“Well what?”

“Nothing… I forgot.”

Shaking his head, Morap moved over to his side of the bed and lifted the part of the blanket Poe wasn’t lying on. “Scoot over, will you?”

“Make me.”

“I will.”

“Please do.”

Poe couldn’t help but grin to himself, as he felt Morap slip underneath the blanket at his side and after a few seconds joined Morap. He had changed the sheets only this day and the fresh scent made him sigh in appreciation as much as did Morap moving closer and wrapping his arms around Poe’s torso and putting his head on his chest. “Good night…” Poe murmured hoarsely and put his arms around Morap. Blinking, he could see the sky outside their window shifting from pitch black to grey.

With a sigh, Morap reached for the console above their heads and twirled the button, which turned down the light.

“Leave it on…”, Poe muttered, his lips on Morap’s head. He didn’t sleep to well in full darkness, but most nights he didn’t ask for Morap to leave on the light, since he knew that Morap preferred it that way. “Just a bit… please.”

“Fine…” Morap grumbled and then let his hand fall back on Poe’s chest. “Just because you listen to my horrid music.”

“Good night, Bendar” Poe whispered, breathing in the scent of Morap’s hair and revelling the feeling of it underneath his fingertips.

“Good night, Dameron…”

 

The sunny and warm autumn seemed to be over and had started showing off its nasty side. Poe had been away from Corellia for the better part of a week visiting his father back on Yavin IV. Morap had been sick when Poe had left and Poe had insisted on him staying in bed.

            As he now opened the door to their apartment, he could see at first glance that Morap indeed hadn’t done one bit of cleaning these last couple of days but had more likely added to the chaos in their living space. Neither of them was particularly tidy, but Morap seemed to even be enjoying the pandemonium taking over their apartment bit by bit.

            “I’m home!” With a slight smile on his lips he shrugged out of his jacket, which hadn’t really kept the cold away anyway, and threw it over everything else on the heap of clothing burying the chair. A quick look around told him that the droid wasn’t in its usual corner, so Morap was either out, or the droid was with him for whatever reason.

            “Come in here!” Morap’s commanding voice came from the living room and making Poe grin and his heart rate pick up, even though he had only been gone for a couple of days. “I missed you!”

            “I hope you did!” Poe returned and turned right into the living room. Morap was sitting on the couch and looked up with a bright smile, while the droid just turned around and rolled off towards the window.

            Morap was wearing some shorts and a white T-Shirt and his bare feet were on the couch. Grinning widely Poe approached him and kissed him without saying another word. This single kiss was all he needed for now. Being with his father was always nice, but missing Morap the whole time put a damper on the whole experience. Poe had simply gotten used to having Morap with him at all times, but of course Morap’s health had to be put first. At least now Morap wasn’t pale anymore and the nose had apparently stopped running. “Hey you…”, Poe muttered. “You cut your hair.”

            Shrugging, Morap brushed one hand through his hair. “Too much work,” he said and only then did Poe see that Morap was holding something which could only be a tiny brush in his other, hovering over Morap’s right foot.

            “And you’re painting your nails?” Poe asked, his brow raised and unable to completely stifle a laugh. “Well, I had no idea you were such a pretty pilot, Morap.”

            A whirring sound from the window was the first answer he got. The droid made one comment on Poe’s obsessive behaviour with his own hair, as far as Poe could tell anyway, and then turned its sensors back to the window.

            “You learn something new every day, don’t you?” Morap laughed. “Come on, sit down, I can’t wait to hear about your dad.”

            “He’s fine,” Poe answered, taking off his shoes as he walked around the couch. With a sigh, he let himself fall down next to Morap’s feet. “What _are_ you doing there? There’s not even any colour on them.”

            Putting his hand on Morap’s leg, he looked at the small table in front of the couch. There was a tiny bottle of some orange liquid and Morap’s datapad sitting right next to it, something, which could only be a letter showing on its screen. “Who are you writing to?”

            Morap sighed. “Someone I knew long ago.” His eyes were focused on his foot, and as if he had to concentrate really hard on what he was doing, he applied a layer of varnish on the nail of his big toe. “Don’t worry, it doesn’t really matter.”

            So it probably had to do with the time before Morap had come to the Republic from the Unknown Regions. What Morap had run away from, Poe had wondered more than once, but he had never asked what had happened, or who Morap had left behind. The only thing he knew was that Morap had been really young when he had got here. Way too young to have run away from someone Poe should be worried about. He knew all about Morap’s past lovers. They had been open about that from the start. There hadn’t been a whole lot for either of them, and Poe knew that Morap was telling the truth. There were still some things Morap didn’t want him to know, but Poe thought that one day Morap might change his mind.

            “I’ve got a fungus,” Morap said matter of factly, holding up the brush like a weapon and staring down angrily at the toe nail to which he had only just applied the clear liquid.

            “I’m sorry, what?”

            “A fungus. I’ve got one.”

            Letting go of Morap’s foot, Poe put his hand on the back of the couch instead, but couldn’t help but look down at Morap’s foot. There it was. The spot Morap had treated was tiny and of a weird yellowish light colour. “Urgh…”

            “Don’t worry. It’s not contagious, as far as I know… I hope…” Morap met his eyes with a sheepish grin.

            “And what’s the orange stuff for? Are you going to cover it up? What _have_ you been up to these last couple of days?”

            “Beebee-Ate needed some work,” Morap answered, pointing to the orange bottle and reaching for the smallish bottle Poe had overlooked before and putting the brush inside.

            “So, let me get this straight, you do the work on your droid in our living room. Sitting on our couch? Why couldn’t you have just handed it over to the engineers or something?” Poe would never understand why Morap was so insistent on pampering this little machine.

            With a shrug, Morap put the one bottle away, only to pick up the other orange one. “He’s my buddy and you don’t hand your friends over to strangers when you can take care of them yourself, do you?”

            Poe couldn’t argue with that. At least not on the word level. He didn’t even bother reminding Morap that the astromech was nothing but a machine. A machine, admittedly, which did indeed remind Poe of a person with very peculiar character traits from time to time. “Well…” he murmured without really answering him.

            “Put your feet up.”

            “What?”

            Morap rolled his eyes. “Just do it, I want to see something. Check for fungus, or whatever.”

            Snorting, Poe gave in to Morap’s request and took off his socks as well. “See anything?” he asked as Morap picked up his left foot with his warm hands and started examining each and every one of Poe’s toes and placing kisses on all five of them.

“Picture perfect, tiny and smelly.”

            “Hey!”

            “Just like you.”

            “Hey!” Poe laughed and put his big toe to Morap’s nose. “I spent all night on a stinky public transport to get back to you. I don’t even want to hear a single complaint about my smell!” Indeed, he had showered on the transport just before getting here. Just hearing Morap joke was enough to make him smile. He didn’t say anything else, as Morap put Poe’s foot on his shin and screwed open the orange bottle.

            With deliberate care Morap lifted up the top of the bottle, revealing another small brush covered in thick, orange varnish and started applying it to Poe’s toenails.

            Poe felt the familiar warmth spread through his chest, as he watched his partner, tongue stuck between his lips, concentrating very hard on getting the job done perfectly. “Looks good,” Poe commented after Morap had finished painting the nails on Poe’s left foot.

            “Yes, it does. I should be working in a salon or something.” Morap’s smile showed how satisfied he was with his work and his eyes were sparkling, as he screwed the lid back on the bottle.

            “I wouldn’t like that very much,” Poe said, returning the smile. “I rather like working with you, you know?”

            “Ah, you’d be my secretary or something. I’d find work for you.”

            “Sure…” Poe said quietly, wriggling his toes and smiling sheepishly at the bright orange paint on them. “I’d miss it, though,” he admitted. “Flying with you.”

            Morap’s smile was as radiant as ever, but he didn’t say anything, just put his hand on Poe’s leg and turned his head to look out the window.

            Poe would probably never grow tired of watching this profile. Morap looked better with his hair a bit shorter, Poe thought, but he’d probably be satisfied with Morap even if he had shaved it all off or had cut off his nose. Just having Morap close by was all he really needed.

            The rain outside had stopped and the sun was breaking through the clouds, engulfing Morap in its strange, fiery red light and all of a sudden Poe felt an icy cold creep up his spine. A cold, which seemed to freeze his entire body and the only thing he could do was reach out and grab Morap’s hand. But Morap didn’t even turn to look at him.

 

Years later, long after Morap had left him forever without having a say in the matter, without even one last chance to say goodbye, Poe still got up in the middle of the night every now and then. The wounds still hadn’t healed and they probably never would. Not really. It had happened only three days after Morap had painted the toe nails on his left foot and when the last of the paint had grown out, Poe had been sure that he had really lost all he had left from Morap. But then he had remembered the droid. That Beebee-Ate with its snarky remarks, which was seemingly sharing his grief.

            After Morap’s death at the hands of the First Order, Poe had started sleeping in the dark, which made him feel closer to his lost partner, but at the same time so very far away from him. He had gotten used to it, however, but as he saw Finn lying there next to him, in their bed in their new house, Poe couldn’t help but notice, that Finn wasn’t sleeping as soundly as he should be.

            Without making a sound, Poe got up and moved towards the door. Beebee-Ate was still undergoing repairs and Poe was already missing the droid, even though he had only been gone less than a day. He’d get him back eventually, he thought, as he gently turned on the light to five percent and immediately Finn seemed to become more relaxed. They’d leave to try and find his family the next day and Finn needed all the rest he could get, especially since he wasn’t particularly happy about the prospects of going on a seemingly impossible quest.

            Poe turned his back on Finn and slowly made his way down the stairs into the kitchen. A couple of boxes were still littering the floor and one of them was still sitting on the kitchen counter. It wasn’t labelled, but Poe knew all too well what was inside it. Without giving himself time to think, he reached into the box and pulled out the ancient data card. The music Morap had liked was stored on there. All of it. Poe had been unable to delete it, but hadn’t listened to it once, since Morap’s death. Gently stroking his thumb over the flat, dark surface, he took the half empty bottle of wine he and Finn had opened a couple of hours ago, and made his way towards the living room. The couch had barely ever been sat on. It was brand new. The last one had been too old, but Poe missed it already, as he sat down on it, the bottle of wine in his hand and the data card clutched in his hand. He could practically hear the soft music and the screechy singing voice and closed his eyes, as he put the bottle to his lips.

 


End file.
